Eight Plus Fifty Two Days of Luke
by iTomato
Summary: Sixty days in the life of Luke fon Fabre. Post game drabble series, LukexTear, appearances by nearly all characters.
1. Chapter 1

**iTomato**: For a community on LJ, "60damnprompts," I claimed Luke fon Fabre. The challenge is to write sixty days in his life. Eek.  
_disclaimer_: Tales of the Abyss is not mine.

* * *

**One // Mail**

He was sitting, quite comfortably, in his bed when there was a tapping at his door. "Master Luke? May I enter?" The voice, shy and hesitant, belonged to a servant. "You have a visitor."

"Oh, you do not need to be so polite to him," twittered a familiar voice. The doorknob turned, and Natalia entered the room, clutching a handful of envelopes in her hand. "Are you still in bed, Luke? Honestly!"

"I could have been naked, Natalia," he grumbled, refusing to sit up for her sake. In the threshold, the maid bit her nails nervously. "It's all right," Luke called to her. "You can go. You're not in trouble or anything."

When the maid left, Natalia sat on the edge of his bed, narrowing her eyes at him. "I do not wish to look down at you when I'm speaking. Can you at the very least sit up for my sake?"

Luke made a show of hauling himself into a seated position, staring at her with half open eyes. "What do you want, Natalia?"

She waved the envelopes at him. "We have letters. Quite a few actually, for the both of us. I think it may be something rather big, as we never get this much correspondence at once. Do you want yours?"

He reached to grab them, but she pulled her hand away, and he whined, "C'mon. Give them to me."

"You will leave the vicinity of this room once I do. Sleeping till high noon nearly every day! Everyone is talking about you, Luke, and it is getting harder to defend you."

He grabbed the letters from her as she went off on her rant, tossing the ones not addressed to him back at her. Scanning the names, he noted half of them were from Anise, which meant he didn't have to read them right now. One was from Florian, and there were a few from both Kimlascan and Malkuth noblemen, probably asking if he wanted to marry their daughters. He'd been hounded with them since his engagement to Natalia had been called off, and he could only imagine how many marriage requests Natalia herself received, especially with the kingship at stake.

"Peony? Peony sent me a letter?"

"Oh, I've gotten one from him as well," she replied, looking over her own.

"He probably got Jade to write it…" Luke muttered, ripping open the envelope to reach the letter inside. Before he got past the introduction, Natalia scowled, ripping the paper to shreds. "What?" Luke asked.

"Don't even both reading the ones from Emperor Peony!" she seethed. Luke chuckled at her, his mind only scratching at what the man could have possibly written. While she moved on to her next letter, he sifted through his own.

"Ah!" he said suddenly, a smile on his face. "I've got a letter from Tear!" As he ripped the envelope open, Natalia's lips formed a secret smile, her eyes slyly watching her cousin's reaction. But as he began to read the letter, his face fell, and she looked at him with concern.

"What? What's wrong, Luke?"

"It's Teodoro…" he replied, holding out the letter. "He… Tear said… She's… He's passed on."

"Oh my!" she gasped, covering her mouth with one hand and taking the letter with the other. As her eyes skimmed the contents, Luke gazed out the window, very much wishing he could hyperresonate to Yulia City right now.

* * *

A/N: More to come soon! Reviews are lovely! 


	2. Chapter 2

**iTomato**: Day Two! This one's shorter than the previous part, but it happens.

* * *

**Two // Trance**

"Tear…" Luke said, finally finding her after arriving in Yulia City. He wrapped his arms around her, and she clutched him tightly.

"Luke," she replied. "I'm so glad you made it."

He pushed her away slightly, looking her in the eyes. Keeping his hands on her shoulders, he asked, "How are you doing?"

"Fine," she said, smiling only with her lips.

Natalia pushed Luke out of the way to embrace the girl, eyes welling up in sympathy. "You have my sincerest condolences, Tear," she whispered, holding her friend close. "I am so, so sorry for your loss."

"Thank you, Natalia," Tear replied, giving the girl another emotionless smile. "Thank you both for coming. Grandfather would have appreciated it."

Natalia looked back and forth between them. "Luke, I'll go with father to inform everyone of our arrival. Why don't you stay with Tear for now?"

Luke nodded, and Natalia gave Tear another quick hug before slowly catching up with King Ingobert. Luke took Tear's hand and tilted her face upwards. "Let's go somewhere private, shall we?" She only nodded once, but he led her away from public view into her rooms, setting her down on her bed. She stared ahead, hardly aware of her hand in his. He sat next to her, squeezing her fingers. "Tear?"

"I'm sorry," she said, and she started crying. "I don't mean to—I just—I'm sorry—And—" She fell against shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her shaking frame, stroking her hair, kissing her forehead.

* * *

A/N: Comments are lovely :) 


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**: Day three /o/

* * *

**Three // Baby**

The day before Teodoro's funeral, Luke, Tear, and Natalia took to walking around Yulia City in hopes of distracting a certain Melodist. Natalia asked the sort of questions Guy would ask; while her motives were fairly obvious, Tear seemed to welcome the diversion. She stopped short suddenly, the familiar haze on her face, as a mother walked by with an infant in her arms. Natalia smiled, hiding her mouth with her hand, while Luke chuckled quietly.

The mother disappeared around a corner, and Tear snapped out of her trance. She looked to the aristocratic cousins staring at her and blushed. "W-what?" she stuttered, avoiding their gaze.

"Oh, nothing," Natalia replied, a knowing grin on her lips.

Moments later, a toddler rushed towards them, crashing into Luke's legs. The boy fell over, bottom lip quivering. "Hey, kid, you okay?" Luke asked, crouching down. Tear fell to her knees at once, checking for injuries.

"I l-lost my mommy!" the child cried, latching onto Tear's outstretched arm. She blushed but pulled him closer, allowing the boy to weep into her chest.

Natalia crouched down as well. "Where did you see her last? Perhaps we can help you find her."

"I, I don't know!" he sniffled, and Tear pat his head. Luke sighed, and Natalia attempted to sooth him through soft 'shhs.'

A shadow fell on them from above, and Luke looked up. "And what do we have here?" asked a familiar count, smiling.

"A lost kid," Luke grinned, getting to his feet to greet his friend. "When did you get here, Guy?"

"About an hour ago," Guy replied, crossing his arms. "I asked about you all, and they said you were wandering around."

Natalia stood. "It is nice to see you again, Guy."

"Same to you, Natalia."

"Waaaaah!" the boy cried, bringing the attention back on him. Tear held him close, humming in his ear, attempting to calm him down. "I want my mommy!!"

"We'll find her," Tear said in a voice very unlike her hardened soldier's tone. When he still didn't relax, she began to sing in a hushed tenor, and a familiar tune carried into her friends' ears. When she finished, the boy fell asleep, and she smiled. With a hand from Luke, Tear got to her feet, holding the toddler protectively. "Let's ask around. When he wakes up, I'd like him to be with his mother."

"Of course," Luke nodded, smiling. As the four of them set out, he watched her out of the corner of his eye, wondering what she'd look like with a child of her own to cradle.

When they found the child's parents later, Luke couldn't help but notice she looked almost regretful as she passed the boy to his worried mother.

* * *

**a/n:** Feedback is marvelous /o/ 


End file.
